So Yong Kim

How did you know, in finding Hee-Yeon and Song-Hee, that they'd be able to do this? Neither had acted before.

It was partly intuition. I went to visit a lot of schools to observe kids and how they interact in classrooms, then I did a one-on-one interview with them, then videotaped them. I tried to pick the ones I thought could do the roles. But there was no guarantee. To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure that I could pull this off. It was like putting all the ingredients together to see what the chemistry would be on the first day of the shoot.

Your film is one of those cited in A.O. Scott's much-discussed New York Times Magazine article on neo-neo realism.. I wanted to ask--

Um. [laughter]

--what your response was to that. Do you feel like there is such a movement? And that it's addressing a need in American audiences?

I don't know. I don't know. It's very flattering. I'm so grateful for films like "Goodbye Solo" and "Wendy and Lucy." It's such great company; I'm totally honored to be mentioned in the article at all.

But I don't know. I don't know about like specific movements, but there's something, I think, that's exciting that's going on in filmmaking right now, with younger generations of filmmakers -- younger than me, who are much smarter and more educated in filmmaking history than I am. There's just more work coming out, maybe because of the technology, or the economy that we're in, or the social situation that we're tackling. There's exciting stuff happening. So I'm totally energized by that.

"Treeless Mountain" opens in New York and New Jersey on April 22nd.

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